What happened?
More than 300 people were killed in a series of bomb attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. The eight bomb blasts targeted churches and hotels, including the shrine of St Anthony of Padua in the capital city Colombo. Christians, almost all Catholics, make up less than eight per cent of Sri Lanka’s 21 million residents. The government believes the attacks were carried out by the Islamist group National Thowheed Jamath. Twenty-four people have been arrested.
What the media said
In the New York Times, Randy Boyagoda said that the attackers must have chosen their targets carefully. St Anthony’s is a national shrine and “has long been a place frequented by travellers – domestic and foreign, Catholic and non-Catholic – before they begin journeys around the island”. Negombo, where another church was bombed, is known as “Little Rome” thanks to its “robust Catholic culture”; yet the annual festival in honour of St Sebastian attracts those of all faiths. The question for Sri Lanka was whether terrorism would wreck its tradition of pluralism. In the Guardian, Giles Fraser said the attacks reminded us that “We are living though one of the most serious phases of Christian persecution in history, and most people refuse to acknowledge it.”
